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Best adapted lenses for the GFX system?

peterm1

Active member
With all the adapters coming for the GFX system, I thought it would be great to start a thread with people's experiences and recommendations for third party lenses to use on the GFX. I imagine there will be some gems among various older medium format and other lenses.

I just got the Fotodiox Nikon to GFX adapter to use the Zeiss 135mm f/2 APO with the GFX, and will post my impressions as soon as I get to shoot a little more with it (initial impressions are good). I am also looking forward to the Cambo Canon adapter as well to use the 17mm TS-E.

Thanks,

Peter
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
All the Pentax 645 lenses with Aperture rings should be excellent, now wishing I had held on to my 35FA, and 45mm 150mm. Assume the older manual focus Mamiya lenses would also do very well. Lots of those still around also.

How well made is the Fotodiox GFX to G? I am hoping to use my Sigma Art 20mm and Rokinon 14mm.

Paul Caldwell
 

peterm1

Active member
All the Pentax 645 lenses with Aperture rings should be excellent, now wishing I had held on to my 35FA, and 45mm 150mm. Assume the older manual focus Mamiya lenses would also do very well. Lots of those still around also.

How well made is the Fotodiox GFX to G? I am hoping to use my Sigma Art 20mm and Rokinon 14mm.

Paul Caldwell
It seems solidly made and the connection is quite tight. There is a fair amount of vignetting wide open using the 135mm APO (I often add vignetting so it's not a big deal for me).

I shoot wide so I am really looking forward to the Cambo EF to GFX adapter which allows one to change the aperture on the lens with my 17mm TS-E and other Canon lenses without aperture rings.
 

mark1958

Member
I used a fotodiox Hasselblad V adapter and used the Hasselblad 40mm f4 CFE IF lens .. and all i can say is wow.. in a few early tests. Traveling now but hope to try some more this week.
 

Jamgolf

Member
For those interested Leica R lenses are worth a try. In my experience they have incredible picture quality & resolving power. For instance the calculated resolution limit of 280/4 lens is reached at 450 line pairs per millimeter, according to Erwin Puts. 180/2.8 APO is just slightly behind.

The following lenses (and possibly others) would cover 44x33 sensor:

100mm f/2.8 APO-Macro-Elmarit-R
70mm–180mm f/2.8 Vario-APO-Elmarit-R
180mm f/2.8 APO-Elmarit-R
280mm f/4 APO-Telyt-R

I believe these would be excellent match for the GFX sensor. I am currently testing the 180mm f/2.8 APO-Elmarit-R and it covers 54x40 sensor (just barely). From what I have observed this would be a steller performer on GFX (with room for movements).
 

Audii-Dudii

Active member
Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for use with a GFX, the Contax N 17-35/f2.8 zoom should cover a 33x44 sensor from ~22-23mm through 35mm when it's focused at infinity and stopped down to f8.

As can be seen below, there's a bit of vignetting at 21 mm, but it's pretty much gone by 23-24mm, so I'm guessing it's probably acceptable at 22 mm (which I didn't test, alas):



At 35 mm, a 33x44 sensor is covered with no vignetting and there's actually room for a bit of movement, too!

 

rweissman

Member
I've used the following with very good results:

Fododiox EOS adapter + EOS to Leica R adapter:
--Leica R Curtagon 35mm shift lens, no vignetting, will support 2mm of shift before vignetting becomes a problem. Effectively a 28mm on GFX and sharp across the frame.
--Leica R 35-70mm f 3.5, vignetting below 43mm. Sharp across the frame.
--Leica R 100 f2.8 macro -- excellent general performance with no vignetting and strong macro lens performance
--Leica R 50mm Summilux f1.4: some vignetting but almost all cleared up using Lightroom lens profile + manual vignette correction
--Leica R 50mm Summicron f 2.0: more severe vignetting
--Leica R 60mm macro--great, light lens but vignettes

I tried a number of Canon lenses but anything 50mm and below (except the T/S 24mm II) vignetted (Sigma 24 and 35 f1.4, Canon 50mm f1.2, various versions of 24-70) and the hassle of not being able to change aperture made these lenses less useful than the Leica lenses, all of which have manual aperture rings, so I didn't investigate using Canon lenses more thoroughly.

Hasselblad HC to GFX adapter (Fuji's own, just released adapter):

80mm f2.8 Hasselblad HC lens: very easy to focus, no vignetting, very sharp across the frame and supports shutter sync at 1/800--tried it with Fuji 500 flash and was able to overpower the sun at 1/800 shutter speed using lowest ISO and f22 in bright sunlight. This is also the lightest of the HC lenses (63mm full frame equivalent). Apart from slightly different focal length, many shots were mostly indistinguishable from the new 63mm f2.8 Fuji lens but the newer Fuji has slightly more pleasing bokeh.

I also tested the HC 35, HC 50, HC 55-110, HC 30-90 and HC 100 f2.2. All worked fine. In terms of price/performance, for an initial lens to use when needing faster than 1/125 shutter / flash sync, I acquired the HC 80 as a good, inexpensive, general purpose lens. All of the others worked well (but range from fairly to quite expensive, even used). The HC 100 was truly stunning, which suggests that the forthcoming Fuji native 110 f2.0 will be amazing--and will cost far less than a used copy of the HC 100 f2.2. The "wow" factor of the HC 100 is must be seen.

A few other comments on using the Hassy adapter:

1) all the Hassy lenses did pass complete exposure information to the GFX--aperture (and, of course, shutter speed, and ISO).

2) For best use, one should change the lens adapter shutter setting in camera to "lens" rather than "body". Shutter performance is noticeably faster and quieter with the HC leaf shutter than using the native, in-body GFX shutter mechanism on HC lenses.

3) One aggravation using the HC adapter: one has to focus wide open and at relatively high ISO (indoors) to see focus accurately and then stop down (and lower the ISO) to take the shot. There's no automatic "focus wide open but shoot stopped down" mechanism, making the lens cumbersome and slow to shoot indoors. My awesome dealer investigated this and spoke to Fuji directly, who confirmed the lack of automatic stop down shooting, but said that the firmware was finished just prior to shipping and that he expects there to be a number of (unspecified) functional upgrades to the adapter with subsequent firmware revisions from Fuji--so we can, at least, hope.d

4) With the Hassy adapter and any other manual lens adapter, one has to turn off both the preview WB/exposure and the companion preview picture settings. The GFX EVF will gain up (indoors it can become very, very grainy) and this helps focusing to some extent. You'll need to read EV values to understand your true exposure and adjust aperture/ISO/SS accordingly. In many cases, even turning off both picture preview settings isn't enough--I find turning up ISO, focusing and then turning down ISO, while cumbersome, works fairly well and my hit rate is quite good. As I already noted, there is no "focus wide open," "shoot stopped down" function yet for the Hassy adapter. Using flash indoors requires exactly the same discipline. So far, when lowering ISO after obtaining focus, both the Fuji 500 and the Nissan 60A flashes have worked flawlessly to correct the exposure. And both work quite well up to 1/800 with the Hassy adapter.

I'd be curious to learn others' experience using the new Hassy adapter.
 
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M

mjr

Guest
I used a fotodiox Hasselblad V adapter and used the Hasselblad 40mm f4 CFE IF lens .. and all i can say is wow.. in a few early tests. Traveling now but hope to try some more this week.
It would be really interesting to see results from your tests, I am thinking this lens on an Actus or Universalis with the GFX would be an excellent system for the industrial interior type contracts I get, assuming it will handle the shifts ok.

Cheers

Mat
 

bensonga

Well-known member
It would be really interesting to see results from your tests, I am thinking this lens on an Actus or Universalis with the GFX would be an excellent system for the industrial interior type contracts I get, assuming it will handle the shifts ok.

Cheers

Mat
+1! I have this lens too and would love to see some images shot with it and the GFX.

Gary
 

jng

Well-known member
It would be really interesting to see results from your tests, I am thinking this lens on an Actus or Universalis with the GFX would be an excellent system for the industrial interior type contracts I get, assuming it will handle the shifts ok.

Cheers

Mat
FWIW, I use the 40/4 IF CFE on a Flexbody with a 40 x 54 full format CCD back (IQ160). Vertical shifts to 10-12mm are fine (no vignetting), up to max of ~14mm produces a hard vignette in the extreme corners, which may be due to the lens shade rings (need to test this with the rings removed). In any case LCC in C1 takes care of this pretty well. Images are quite sharp into the corners - this is a beautiful lens that one day I'd like to compare directly with the Rodie 40.

John
 

mark1958

Member
Nikon adapter and nikon lenses

I apologize the one afternoon I had time to do some more shooting with the Hassy 40mm CFE IE lens-- had some storms and rain. I hope to get some time this week

I would like to ask if anyone has tried the Nikon adapter with the new Nikon 19mm PCE lens? or any of the Nikon PCE lenses for that matter. I also have a Niko D810 and a number of Nikon lenses. If i was going for a TSE PCE lens I would probably try the Canon as the initial reports look decent but if i am going to go this route would prefer to stick with Nikon.
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Any news from Cambo on a release date for their CA-GFX Canon to GFX adapter yet? I have a TS-E 24mm waiting on it's availability... :thumbup:
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Would a Pentax smc 645 FA 150-300mm F5.6 be a good match for the GFX? I really feel I need more reach than the GF120mm.
It would be an interesting lens to try for sure. It appears to be an older design, but new versions are close to 3K US. eBay has many of the used versions under 1K.

Only reviews I can find seem to say lens needs to be shot at around F11.

I am still curious how well the older Nikon 300mm F4 non VR would work. It's a great lens on Nikon cameras, has a tripod collar. Just not sure how the IC will hold up on the GFX. The older 300 F4 also has an aperture ring.

Paul Caldwell
 

DB5

Member
The few samples I have seen from the Leica M adapter looked really interesting. Looking forward to seeing more.
 
M

mjr

Guest
I'm tempted with Leica R glass, some good deals to be had here and I'm guessing for longer focal lengths they will work really well, hope to get an adapter soon and try some out. Will be great to read experiences from other users too.

Mat
 

peterm1

Active member
Any news from Cambo on a release date for their CA-GFX Canon to GFX adapter yet? I have a TS-E 24mm waiting on it's availability... :thumbup:
I haven't seen anything about the availability of this adapter - I am waiting as well. I contacted one of their U.S. distributors and asked to be informed when they are available. Hopefully soon - I also have the 24mm (and 17mm) TS-Es and look forward to using them on the GFX. In the meantime I will keep using them on my A7RII....
 

CAMBOUSA

Member
Any news from Cambo on a release date for their CA-GFX Canon to GFX adapter yet? I have a TS-E 24mm waiting on it's availability... :thumbup:
When I spoke with everyone last week, I was told they were being machined as we were speaking. So it shouldn't be too much longer. I'll certainly have more information to share as soon as it's shared with me!

I've got another call in about an hour, and I am going to see what I can find out.
 

bensonga

Well-known member
There are some good Pentax 645 telephoto prime lenses in the 200-400mm range that might be worth trying on the GFX, if any one has access to them. I would go with the manual focus A series lenses, but even the autofocus FA series have aperture rings. Here are reviews from the Pentax Forum.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/SMC-Pentax-645-Telephoto-Primes-c14.html

Gary

It would be an interesting lens to try for sure. It appears to be an older design, but new versions are close to 3K US. eBay has many of the used versions under 1K.

Only reviews I can find seem to say lens needs to be shot at around F11.

I am still curious how well the older Nikon 300mm F4 non VR would work. It's a great lens on Nikon cameras, has a tripod collar. Just not sure how the IC will hold up on the GFX. The older 300 F4 also has an aperture ring.

Paul Caldwell
 
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